Mike Dawson says some of his colleagues are angry he's trying to forgo wage hike. The Conservative MP who went public with his intent to refuse a pending parliamentary pay increase was called out by the party whip in front of his colleagues and heckled as he tried to defend his decision, CBC News has learned. In a letter to...
Leaders of a right-wing group pushing a conservative Canadian province to secede and form a new nation say they have been meeting with Trump administration officials to discuss how their radical plan can benefit the U.S. In three separate, highly unusual meetings with officials from the State and Treasury departments, they’ve discussed the logistics of Alberta breaking off from Canada...
Some members of Parliament are slamming the Liberal government's plan to give new powers to cabinet to exempt individuals or corporations from some federal laws. The exemptions are being referred to as "regulatory sandboxes" and are contained in a clause in the government's omnibus budget implementation bill, currently being debated at a House of Commons committee.
Prime Minister Mark Carney will visit Tumbler Ridge, B.C., to attend a vigil on Friday. The Prime Minister's Office says Carney was invited by the town's mayor and that he has invited all other federal party leaders to join him. Nine people, mostly children, were killed in the mass shooting Tuesday, including Jesse Van Rootselaar, the 18-year-old shooter who police...
Coalition touts benefits of CUSMA to rural America, key voting block for Trump and Republicans. The powerful U.S. agriculture industry is throwing its weight behind the Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade agreement, urging the Trump administration to consider the deal's economic benefits to rural America before making any moves to rip it up. Some 40 organizations representing farmers, ranchers, food producers and processors...
Doug Ford and the Progressive Conservatives enter February in a weaker position than they held at the start of the year. The PCs remain ahead on vote intention, but their lead has narrowed considerably. Approval of the Ford government has fallen sharply. The desire for change remains elevated. And the Ontario Liberals, despite lacking a permanent leader following Bonnie Crombie’s...
A new Liaison Strategies survey finds Mayor Olivia Chow’s approval rating at 55% (up 1 point) as Toronto heads into a municipal election year and gears up for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. On the ballot test, Chow sits at 40% (up 1), leading former mayor John Tory at 33% (down 2) by seven points, with City Councillor Brad Bradford at 18%.
Last week Conservative MP for Bowmanville-Oshawa North, Jamil Jivani, stated that he was going down to Washington, DC, in an effort to help move Canada-US trade relations along. Jivani has a longstanding friendship with the US Vice President JD Vance, so it would make sense for him to leverage his personal relationships in a professional capacity. Except, of course, Jivani...
The Bank of Canada’s second-in-command is warning of future inflation risks if investment in artificial intelligence is concentrated among the country’s big companies. Article content Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn Rogers said that while large firms have the scale and capacity to make “big bets on technology,” the country’s ailing productivity is more likely to be repaired if there’s broader adoption...
Multiple reports argue RCMP's sprawling mandate pulls resources from complex crimes. After months of uncertainty hanging over the RCMP, Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree says the government is committed to keeping Mounties in the business of day-to-day policing across the country — while signalling that improving the federal crimes wing is his priority. "Bottom line is, we could do both,"...
The GM plant in Oshawa often feels like a mythical place. Long-time residents in the region tell stories of a time when it was a hub of prosperity for tens of thousands of families. They say, when shifts would end, there were so many GM employees that some roads would become one-way streets so workers could drive home in an...
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s well-crafted and eloquently delivered speech at Davos has been widely noted, and I want to start by offering some praise of my own. The Prime Minister is right to restate what many have said for years: Canada must become more self-reliant, less dependent and work with like-minded countries to advance our interests. Conservatives are, as always...
The mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge is the kind of tragedy that Canada, unfortunately, has seen too often in recent decades. It will take some time to fully understand how this horror occurred. But we know the results. Nine people are dead: A mother, an educator, six children, and the shooter Jesse Van Rootselaar.
As part of his trip to Beijing last month, Prime Minister Mark Carney met with Zhao Leji, the third-ranking member of the 20th Chinese Communist Party Politburo and chair of the standing committee of the National People’s Congress. The readout that emerged from the meeting said they talked about the importance of ongoing parliamentary exchanges and “opportunities for enhanced understanding...
After Donald Trump came out this week with his latest instalment in his Browbeat Thy Neighbour series – his dip into Loo Loo Land with his Truth Social threat to block the opening of the Gordie Howe Bridge – I was keen to check in on the American reaction, from readers in both conservative and liberal media. Out of about...
If there’s one thing that’s driving me a little nuts about the active petition to foist a separation referendum on Alberta, it’s this: the claim that the process is some kind of benign and beautiful expression of democracy. Because, frankly, no, that’s not really how our democratic system is supposed to work. Canada is not California — which uses tools...
Is artificial intelligence the salvation of mankind, or its downfall? Are markets justified in bidding up AI stocks as high as they have, or is it all a bubble? Will we look back on the hundreds of billions of dollars the AI titans are currently investing in capacity as having laid the foundations for a new age of prosperity, or...
School shootings are the most senseless, shattering event that can befall a community. A feeling of ultimate loss grips the entire nation. Political leaders often have nothing more to offer than their condolences, but people want more than that. They are looking for reassurance, empathy and a sense that someone will do something about it.
When Stephen Harper was Prime Minister I wrote many columns warning about the influence that right wing Americans had on his political operation, and I spent many dreary hours trying to trace his connections south of the border. I now wonder if that was time well spent because, since the second election of Donald Trump, it has become clear that...
As a politician, federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has many well-documented strengths. He is a relentless critic of the government he wishes to replace. He grew both his party’s vote share and parliamentary seat count in the last election, bringing the CPC to within spitting distance of victory. And who could blame him for still buzzing over an 87.4 per...
The former PM has devoted much of his post-political career to helping to empower right-wing political parties, but drew the line at threatening Canada’s existence. Stephen Harper came east to celebrate the 20th anniversary of something. While he was at it, the former Conservative prime minister—whether by design or coincidence—took on the task for his party of covering for the...
PIERRE POILIEVRE GAMBLED with his political future—and won—at the Conservative Party of Canada convention in Calgary two weeks ago. Delegates, who gathered under unseasonably warm January skies courtesy of a timely Chinook, were asked whether to grant their leader a vote of confidence. Late that Friday night, the verdict was delivered: 87.4 percent of those who cast a ballot voted...
"Question period is broken," Liberal MP Corey Hogan told the House of Commons last week. In fairness to the current state of question period — and those responsible for it — this is hardly a new complaint. One could spend a long time discussing how Parliament's daily airing of grievances came to be the way it is or who has...
Donald Trump’s threat to prevent the opening of the new Gordie Howe International Bridge unless Canada compensates the United States is but the latest chapter in a series of irrational threats and unjustified punitive measures he has inflicted on our country. Never mind that Canadian taxpayers paid $6 billion for the bridge, which is why there will be a toll...
As Albertans await some clarity from the premier as to whether she’s prepared to champion the cause of Confederation or take on the separatists in any meaningful sense, it falls to others to take up the mantle of national unity.
The prospect of Alberta leaving Canada is such a hot topic that the other potential “leavers” have been overlooked.
We’re becoming familiar with the Alberta government’s give-me-this-or-else demands. The latest one is flimsier than most: it’s based on a falsehood and it amounts to threatening to punch yourself in the face if you don’t get your way. Still, it bears attention because it points to a fundamental flaw in the Alberta separation project, which can no longer be dismissed...
Elections, like the flu, can sneak up on you. They may also be contagious. Not even one year since both men won their own elections, Mark Carney and Doug Ford have reportedly been chatting about another federal election this year.
The Canadian government’s response to the 20-year sentence imposed on Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai is the first test of the government’s new “pragmatic engagement” with China. The early signs are that Ottawa is broadly in favour of the pursuit of justice, as long as it doesn’t hamper its trade policy.
In December 2004 I was sitting in the Official Opposition Leader’s Office and the holder of that office, Stephen Harper, walked in. We were working on an election platform because we expected Paul Martin to spring an election quickly after Peter MacKay and Harper merged their respective parties into the Conservative Party of Canada.
Retired general Wayne Eyre, Canada’s former chief of the defence staff, says this country’s security and sovereignty would be best protected if we possessed our own nuclear weapons and the delivery systems to fire them at whatever targets we deemed in need of vaporization. He didn’t recommend starting a program at once, but said it would be the only real...
Canada stands at a pivotal moment in its AI journey. New research from Strand Partners, conducted on behalf of AWS Canada, reveals that 650,000 Canadian businesses have embraced artificial intelligence—a 33% increase year-over-year that outpaces the global adoption of the internet. With one business adopting AI every three minutes, the momentum is clear. Yet the choices we make today –...
A rogue ambassador to the United States, a new office in Washington for the “Commonwealth of Alberta,” another Mark Carney world tour: we’re just over a month into 2026, and already Canadian diplomacy is headed madly off in all directions. Let’s start with Conservative MP Jamil Jivani, who last week heeded a call that apparently he alone could hear and...
For the first time since his defeat a decade ago, Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper took centre stage this week with a refreshing show of bipartisanship and a call for national unity — a message the country and his party needed to hear. The occasion was Harperpalooza or Harperfest as some Conservative staffers referred to the celebrations, a week’s worth...
The cause was given an exception boost this week. The last week has been a turning point for the Conservative Party of Canada. Its devotees observed the 20th anniversary of the coming to office of Stephen Harper at the head of a reconstructed Conservative party that merged the old Progressive Conservatives and the Canadian Alliance/Reform Party. Stephen Harper thus became...
The whole co-operation initiative was obviously a distasteful task to Pierre Poilievre, one that circumstances and strategists have foisted upon him. When he went to meet Prime Minister Mark Carney on Wednesday to talk about it, his opposite number appeared equally sincere. This was a week when talk of co-operation seemed to be breaking out all over Ottawa. But the...
Prime Minister Mark Carney said the country is in mourning after a tragic shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., left nine dead and more than 25 injured in one of the worst mass killings in Canadian history. Speaking in the House of Commons Wednesday afternoon, Carney said the violence has "left our nation in shock" and his thoughts are with the...
Canada would like to see NATO’s new Arctic Sentry mission become permanent as part of a greater focus on the north for the Western alliance, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand says. NATO announced Wednesday it has launched this mission to strengthen its presence in the Arctic as part of an agreement to defuse severe tensions within the alliance prompted by...
Canadian aerospace company Magellan Aerospace Corp. MALJF has signed an agreement with German submarine maker ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) to produce torpedoes for its vessels if the European company’s bid to build Canada’s next submarine fleet is successful.
6 Republicans join Democrats in resolution to terminate president's 'fentanyl emergency' tariffs. The U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution against President Donald Trump's tariffs on Canadian goods, delivering a stinging rebuke to the administration for launching a trade war on its northern neighbour. The House voted 219-211 in favour of a resolution seeking to terminate the national emergency that...
Details are emerging about a mass shooting in a northeastern B.C. community. Ten people are dead, including the suspect, and approximately 25 were injured. Here are key updates as they happen:
Prime Minister Mark Carney has cancelled his plans to travel to Halifax and Munich, Germany, following a deadly school shooting in British Columbia. Carney was to spend Wednesday afternoon in Halifax to announce the defence industrial strategy, before flying on to Europe for the Munich Security Conference. As news of the tragedy unfolded Tuesday evening, Carney's staffers said he was...
Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday he has heard from a number of world leaders offering condolences in the wake of Tuesday's deadly mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C. Police continue to investigate two attacks that left 10 people, including the suspect, dead in the tiny community in northeastern British Columbia. Here's a quick rundown of statements posted on social...
Prime Minister Mark Carney says flags on federal buildings will be flown at half-mast for seven days to honour the victims of Tuesday's deadly shooting in B.C. A visibly emotional Carney said Wednesday he has heard from leaders around the world offering condolences, including King Charles. "Parents, grandparents, sisters, brothers in Tumbler Ridge will wake up without someone they love,"...
United States President Donald Trump is privately musing about exiting the North American trade pact, people familiar with the matter said, injecting further uncertainty about the deal’s future into pivotal renegotiations involving the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The president has asked aides why he shouldn’t withdraw from the agreement, which he signed during his first term, though he has stopped...
The federal government plans to choose a number of “key strategic partners” from Canada’s defence sector to get special support and access to contracts under the new military industrial strategy that Prime Minister Mark Carney was scheduled to release on Wednesday, the Star has learned. Carney’s announcement will be postponed after Tuesday’s mass shooting a high school in Tumbler Ridge...
Recruiting former Ontario NDP deputy leader Doly Begum and doctor Danielle Martin may be 'phenomenal politics,' but more will ride on whether they would get a greater voice at the table if elected. With the selection of two young, progressive women candidates in the upcoming Ontario byelections, strategists say Prime Minister Mark Carney is attempting to signal he hasn’t drifted...
Carney has said he would enforce ICC warrant if Israeli PM came to Canada. Online flight trackers show that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew hundreds of kilometres through Canadian airspace on his way to meet U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday — despite Prime Minister Mark Carney previously saying he would honour an arrest warrant issued by the International...
Arviat, a small Nunavut community located along the western shore of Hudson Bay, will be the home of the first Inuit-led university in Canada's Arctic, CBC News has learned. The location of the main campus will be formally announced at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on Wednesday afternoon during an event hosted by Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), the national organization representing...
Conservative House Leader Andrew Scheer says he believes the Liberals are having conversations “in good faith” with his party to get legislation passed in the House of Commons, though he wouldn’t say whether the spirit of co-operation is spurred by efforts to avoid an election. “I believe the conversations are being held in good faith,” Scheer said in an interview...
OTTAWA -- The Conservatives introduced a motion Tuesday calling on the government to bar non-citizens convicted of serious crimes from making refugee claims.
The billionaire owner of a bridge connecting Michigan with Canada met Howard Lutnick, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, on Monday hours before President Trump lambasted a competing span, in the latest flashpoint in the deteriorating relationship between the United States and Canada. Matthew Moroun is a Detroit-based trucking magnate whose family has operated the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor...
The federal government may name the winner of the heated competition to supply the navy with a fleet of new submarines as soon as this year. Stephen Fuhr, secretary of state for defence procurement, says Ottawa will "probably" announce a winner this year -- and declared the vessels will be in the water by 2032. He made the comments today...
Ontario Premier Doug Ford says Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre may have secured the overwhelming support of his party in a recent leadership vote, but cautioned that elections are not won on the convention room floor. Poilievre secured 87 per cent of the delegates in Calgary last month at the party's convention, pulling in more than what former prime minister Stephen...
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says "significant" deficits are in store for her province as it tries to grapple with low oil prices. The government's new budget is set to be unveiled later this month, and Smith says it's going to be a "tough" one. The premier told RED FM Calgary this week that she has ruled out tax hikes and...
Conservative MP Mike Dawson says he can't "in good conscience" accept the pay raise members of Parliament are supposed to get in April because it's unfair when Canadians are struggling to keep up with the rising cost of living. MPs are set to receive a 4.2 per cent raise on April which the New Brunswick MP says is "frankly distasteful."
Prime Minister Mark Carney said Donald Trump's threat to stall the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge will be resolved following a call with the U.S. president Tuesday. "I explained that Canada paid for the construction of the bridge — $4 billion — that the ownership is shared between the state of Michigan and the Government of Canada," Carney...
Prime Minister Mark Carney intends to deepen defence ties and attract new business investment when he travels to Germany this week, according to government officials. Carney will depart for the Munich Security Conference on Wednesday, becoming the first Canadian prime minister to attend the conference since Justin Trudeau in 2020. More than 60 heads of state and government leaders are...
Ontario’s premier is prompting Canadians and its prime minister to “not buckle” when it comes to Donald Trump’s threats concerning blocking the Gordie Howe bridge from opening. “This is not the time to rollover and let President Trump take advantage of us,” Doug Ford said Tuesday morning while addressing the threat. “Why did he [Trump] fast-track it [the bridge] in...
Ontario Premier Doug Ford says that the possibility of an early federal election has “come up” in conversations with Prime Minister Mark Carney and his fellow premiers but he is downplaying its significance. Ford made the comment to reporters at Queen’s Park on Tuesday. His response comes in the wake of a report in the Globe and Mail which, citing...
Foreign diplomats in Ottawa are applauding the vision of Canada’s foreign policy direction outlined by Prime Minister Mark Carney in his Davos address, but they’re coming to different conclusions about how it will get implemented.
Bell Canada and SAP Canada have signed a deal to jointly develop a Canadian‑operated cloud solution aimed at serving Canadian governments and regulated industries that require strict control over sensitive information. Under a memorandum of understanding, the companies will establish a fully Canadian-isolated cloud alternative intended to help ensure sensitive government, citizen and organizational data remain within Canada. The partnership...
Seventy-one per cent of Canadians agree with B.C. Premier David Eby’s recent statement that “to go to a foreign country and to ask for assistance in breaking up Canada, there’s an old-fashioned word for that, and that word is treason,” according to a new poll from Canada Pulse Insights.
Prime Minister Mark Carney is heading to Germany later this week for the world's top security conference, as Canada works to update its own defence policy. Carney's office says he will leave for Munich Wednesday, and be in Germany until Sunday.
The federal government recorded more than 2,600 cases of employee misconduct and wrongdoing last year, resulting in at least 145 terminations and 783 suspensions without pay. The misconduct and wrongdoing allegations run the gamut from sleeping on duty to sexual harassment, racial discrimination, workplace violence, privacy breaches, timesheet fraud, inappropriate social media posts and the theft of government property like...
NEW YORK (AP) -- A year ago, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he wanted to rebuild trust in federal health agencies, and vowed to employ "radical transparency" to do it.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- About 6 in 10 U.S. adults say President Donald Trump has "gone too far" in sending federal immigration agents into American cities, according to a new AP-NORC poll that suggests political independents are increasingly uncomfortable with his tactics.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump attacked the Republican leader of the National Governors Association on Wednesday as tensions mounted between the White House and the bipartisan group of state leaders ahead of its annual meeting next week.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance's team posted and then deleted a message on social media about the Republican's visit to a memorial paying tribute to early 20th century Armenians killed by the Ottoman Empire.
Foreign diplomats in Ottawa are applauding the vision of Canada’s foreign policy direction outlined by Prime Minister Mark Carney in his Davos address, but they’re coming to different conclusions about how it will get implemented.
President says he won't allow opening until U.S. 'is fully compensated for everything we have given' Canada. U.S. President Donald Trump is threatening to block the opening of the Gordie Howe Bridge, poised to become the newest border crossing between Windsor, Ont., and Detroit. "I will not allow this bridge to open until the United States is fully compensated for...
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand is calling on China to release Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai after he was sentenced to 20 years in jail today under a sweeping national security law. Canada joins numerous peers, including the United States and the European Union, in condemning Beijing for the sentence imposed under a law used to crack down on Hong...
Jimmy Lai, the pro-democracy former Hong Kong media tycoon and a fierce critic of Beijing, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in one of the most prominent cases prosecuted under a China-imposed national security law that has virtually silenced the city's dissent.
Former cabinet minister Chrystia Freeland says when it comes to the U.S. and its relationships with other countries on the world stage, it needs to "get their act together." Since his 2025 inauguration, U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened several countries, including Canada, with annexation and tariffs on goods, creating an ongoing trade war. Freeland, fresh off her January resignation...
Since the legalization of medical assistance in dying (MAiD) in 2016, the federal government has created certain safeguards and regulatory mechanisms – including data collection – to ensure that people don’t request death because they lack access to care, including palliative care.
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
Lisa Banfield, common-law wife of the man who meticulously slaughtered 22 people six years ago, recently published a memoir of her life-on-eggshells with a controlling killer.
The head of Ottawa’s public service got an earful from the federal information commissioner about the dismal state of access to information – the sign of a growing rift between the Liberal government and Parliament’s watchdog on transparency. At a Nov. 12 meeting, Caroline Maynard presented Michael Sabia, clerk of the Privy Council, with statistics detailing the deterioration of the...
The RCMP has handed out 23 awards for excellence to officers and employees in Nova Scotia for their performance during the April 2020 mass murders, in which a gunman impersonating a Mountie murdered 22 people in cold blood.
With the polls showing a spike in support for the Liberals, speculation has also spiked about an early election. What do the polls say about whether Mark Carney’s Liberals or Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives should want to head back on the campaign trail in 2026?
Secretary of State for Sport Adam van Koeverden joins Playbook Canada from the Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina, where he’s watching Team Canada compete and looking ahead to a potential Canada–U.S. hockey showdown. But back home, the mood shifts dramatically as news of a mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., brings Parliament to a halt and forces Prime Minister Mark...
Tuesday’s deadly mass shooting in the community of Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, marks the second deadliest school shooting in Canadian history. Nine people are dead, including the shooter, and at least 25 others are injured. Many details are still unknown, but today, we’re talking about the aftermath of the tragedy. Globe reporters Matthew Scace and Alanna Smith give us the...
A horrific mass shooting took place in the small community of Tumbler Ridge, B.C. on Tuesday – one of the deadliest in Canadian history. Nine people are dead, including the suspect, and 27 more were injured. Many of the victims were as young as 12 or 13 years old. CBC senior reporter Caroline Barghout is in Tumbler Ridge covering the...
